Growing up, I heard a lot of stories from friends and family members about how they were in situations that could have ended very badly for them had they not listened to their "instincts." The kinds of danger they were exposed to at the time were things like heavy objects almost falling on their head, escaping from really creepy people who sometimes were revealed to be kidnappers, and some weird supernatural stuff which I kinda don't believe but am too chicken to "test it out." I've also been lurking a lot on r/LetsNotMeet, and yes, I know it's a bad idea to be reading these kinds of stories when I know they'll probably trigger me, but I've actually learned a lot of valuable lessons from reading them that I never would have known otherwise (ie, never let your kidnapper take you to a second location). A lot of these stories ended "well" with the OP not dead because they'd listened to their instincts.

I would really prefer not to die by case of murder. Like, I am depressed, but I'm not super into a painful death. So I'd really like to be able to rely on my "instincts" the way a lot of the survivors from the above mentioned stories have. The problem is, I have pretty bad anxiety from past sexual abuse and getting the shit beaten out of me in public, so I get triggered by a lot of very small things, like creaking floorboards and footsteps. It does not help that I live in an apartment that isn't entirely sound proof, so I hear that stuff all the time.

I have to imagine there have to be others like me who have figured out a way to distinguish "fuck get the fuck out of there (for a legitimate reason)" from our everyday anxiety. And to y'all, how do you do it??